A big shout out to the Realtor’s Association of Edmonton for getting their monthly report out extremely quickly this month! The numbers we reported yesterday are correct, sales are down in Edmonton:
“Our members report that there are a lot of potential buyers in the market but many are not ready to commit,” said Marc Perras, president of the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton. “They are being cautious and hoping for further price drops or lower interest rates that reflect the current global economic situation.”
In other words, it’s a buyer’s market. When it comes to defining the market there are a couple of methods out there (that I know of). One is the new listings to sales ratio:
The other is the absorption rate (based on inventory instead of new listings):
Clearly there is some discrepancy between the two methods, but for the most part they will match up. Sometimes you just have to go by your gut feeling, and what is happening out on the street and one thing is for sure…it’s a buyer’s market!
So what else happened in November? Well, first off homes took longer to sell (63 days), that is normal for this time of year, although 63 is longer than average for November.
The number of new listings fell to within the normal range:
And inventory dropped as well, although not as far as I’d like to see:
Since there is a direct correlation between inventory and average sale price:
Trying to figure out what to expect in the coming months is kind of like trying to figure out who’s going to be running the government of Canada. What I do expect is that sales will be softer than normal until something happens to signal confidence in the financial and credit markets. That’s a lot to ask Santa for Christmas though unless of course Santa cancels Christmas due to the inability to pay his elves.
